--As “Grateful” Ellen Tours Monrovia, Environs
Liberia has been declared Ebola-free by the World Health Organization (WHO), putting an end to a dark period in the country’s history and welcoming a fresh start of recovery and renewal.
“Liberia has interrupted transmission of the Ebola virus. Forty-two days have passed since the last laboratory confirmed case was buried on 28 March. The criteria established by the WHO have been met. The outbreak of Ebola virus disease in Liberia is over,” WHO Country Representative, Dr. Alex Gasasira, announced at an Ebola Incidence Management System Meeting Saturday.
“Interruption of transmission is a monumental achievement for a country that reported the highest number of deaths in the largest, longest and most complex outbreak since Ebola first emerged in 1976,” he said.
Dr. Gasasira said the milestone would not have been reached without highlighting the need for vigilance amid the risk of re-infection since Liberia’s neighbors—Guinea and Sierra Leone—were still recording cases.
“It is a tribute to the government and people of Liberia that determination to defeat Ebola never wavered, courage never faltered. Doctors and nurses continued to treat patients, even when supplies of Personal Protective Equipment and training in its safe use were inadequate.
“Local volunteers, who worked in treatment centres, on burial teams, or as ambulance drivers, were driven by a sense of community responsibility and patriotic duty to end Ebola and bring hope back to the country’s people.
“At the same time, transmission persists in neighbouring Guinea and Sierra Leone, creating a high risk that infected people may cross into this country,” he said, adding that Liberia had the experience and capacity and support from the international community to avert another round of outbreak.
“WHO is here to support Liberia as the response transitions from outbreak control, to vigilance for imported cases, to the recovery of essential health services”.
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf praised the effort of healthcare workers, community leaders and ordinary people in ending the disease.
“I think it shows that when you are at your worst you give your best. That’s what came out of this whole experience. Liberians saved lives—not only their own lives but those of others,” President Sirleaf said, marveling at the days the country was reporting scores of cases daily and now that had been declared free of the deadly disease.
President Sirleaf thanked world leaders for responding to a letter she wrote, asking for an international response to the Ebola crisis in her country. She said she had written another letter to the world to thank the international community for an effective response that has ended the disease in her country.
She said though Ebola was gone, Liberia’s post-Ebola recovery was a huge challenge before her government.
“The task is not over. In fact, we have another difficult task just before us. So don’t get overzealous,” she told members of Liberia’s Ebola Incidence Management System, including Minister of Health-designate, Dr. Bernice Dahn and Deputy Health Minister-designate for Incidence Management, Mr. Tolbert Nyenswah.
The President has begun a tour of several health facilities, including three Ebola treatment units, an interim care unit for Ebola orphans, widows and other survivors and Banjour, located on the outskirts of Monrovia, where many people lost their lives to the disease.
Monday, May 11, 2015 will be the official day for celebration and thanksgiving for the milestone. According to a statement from the Minister of Information, Lewis Brown, Christians have been advised to pray for the souls of those who lost their lives to Ebola on Sunday, while an Islamic prayer is being planned for Friday, May 15, 2015 to the memory of members of the Muslim community who succumbed to the disease.
Some African leaders, including the presidents of Nigeria and Togo, are expected to join President Sirleaf for the official thanksgiving service at the Centennial Memorial Pavilion in Monrovia.